Pioneer has always wowed us with their high-end stereo components, as well as the sticker price that's attached. But the company wows us even more when it can fit the high-end features into an affordable home-theater-in-a-box (HTB) system that consists of a receiver, a five-disc, multi-format DVD/CD player, and all the necessary speakers for surround sound audio.
Pioneer rates the receiver at 450 watts total power, but you'd only need to know that if you were buying speakers and wanted to know if they were compatible. With an HTB, the question is whether the combination of receiver and speakers is loud enough. In the case of the HTD-330DV, it is. The system gets so loud you'll probably turn on the Midnight mode for late-night listening, one of the HTD-330DV's many signal-shaping options. The Midnight mode lets you reduce the volume without the sound getting thin. Other notable digital signal processing features include dialogue enhancement, three bass enhancement modes, nine surround-sound effects, and a virtual-surround back speaker.
Each speaker is designed with placement in mind. Once the hardware is assembled, configuration is made simple by a user-friendly onscreen process.
As an entry-to-mid-level system, the HTD-330DV delivers impressive sound, along with picture quality that's easily the equal of what you'd expect from a mid-priced standalone DVD player. The receiver decodes both Dolby Digital and DTS signals, and in both modes delivers a convincing sonic image with plenty of low-end punch from the subwoofer. As a music player, the HTD-330DV can cope not only with store-bought CDs, but those burned with MP3 and WMA files. Although some of the surround sound effects struck us as being somewhat over the top, others enhanced the sound of well-recorded stereo discs.
The HTD-330DV can place JPEG images on the TV screen while you're enjoying some tunes. The onscreen navigation system lets you select the folder or picture by file name or by viewing thumbnail images. A slideshow mode displays the images in the selected folder in alphabetical order. If you've got a PC application that creates Video CD slideshows, the HTD-330DV supports that disc format as well.
With the HTD-330DV Pioneer has clearly met the needs of its target audience. It's easy to set up, and its impressive collection of bells and whistles doesn't come at the expense of complexity.
-- by David Drucker
Pioneer HTD-330DV
$450
Company: Pioneer Electronics
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